1. Field of the Invention
The embodiments of the invention relate to railroad equipment, and more particularly, to railroad equipment for dispensing railroad tie plate. Although embodiments of the invention are suitable for a wide scope of railroad tie plate dispensing applications, it is particularly suitable for dispensing railroad tie plates along a railway to pre-position the railroad tie plates for subsequent maintenance work on the railway.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
In general, a railroad is a pair of parallel rails interconnected by railroad ties that cross the rails along a path of ballast. The rails are interconnected with the railroad ties using railroad tie plates, which are positioned between the rails and the railroad ties. Typically, railroad ties are made of wood but can also be made of reinforced concrete.
Railroad tie plates increase the load bearing surface area on the tie. Accordingly, a load that is transferred from the rail to the railroad tie through the railroad tie plate is spread across a larger surface of the railroad tie than a surface area of the rail on the railroad tie plate. In the past, spikes were used to hold both the railroad tie plates and the rails in position on the ties. Today, spikes or bolts can be used to attach the railroad tie plate to the tie while the rail is attached to the tie plate using a fastener, such as a clip.
Railroads were initially built using hand tools and manual labor. The equipment first used in the railroad construction industry was for clearing and preparing railway beds. Later, purpose built equipment specifically designed for railroad construction was developed and used. Such purpose built equipment can have the ability to ride-on or drive-on the railroads with rail gear mounted on that equipment. Today, the setting of ties, laying of rail, grading of ballast and driving of spikes is all done by railroad construction equipment specifically designed for such tasks. There is also railroad construction equipment that can affect repairs, such as tie replacement equipment that removes a tie from under the rails of an existing railroad track and then inserts a new tie, which is later spiked to a tie plate and then attached to the rails with a clip.
Purpose built railroad construction equipment is typically supported by other material handling equipment. For example, front-end loaders and dump trucks used to preposition ballast for the railway ballast grading equipment. In another example, excavators with mechanical claws preposition ties for the railway tie setting equipment. However, manual labor is still used to preposition railroad tie plates for the railroad tie plate installation equipment. That is, manual labor is done to specifically position railroad tie plates adjacent to the ends of a tie such that railroad tie plate installation equipment can later come along and acquire the railroad tie plate and install the railroad tie plates between the ties and the rails. The placement of railroad tie plates by hand, so as to effectively preposition railroad tie plates for a machine to then later install railroad tie plates, can literally be considered back breaking work.